Don't get caught in the all-or-nothing trap. Try it out and you'll
find yourself moving, at your own rate, towards a diet that includes
more and more uncooked meals.

For the record, here's
a somewhat "official" explanation of a raw food diet:
"The raw food diet is a diet based on unprocessed and uncooked
plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds,
nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. Heating food
above 116 degrees F is believed to destroy enzymes in food that
can assist in the digestion and absorption of food. Cooking is
also thought to diminish the nutritional value and 'life force'
of food."

Ani Phyo's Raw Food Tips

Then, of course, there's the added bonus of being like my friend
Charles "Chuck" Balcer and using your bike power to
make your raw smoothies. All kidding aside, Balcer's transition
to a raw food lifestyle is instructive and motivating. Since switching
from a "diet of pizza, KFC, and pork fried rice," he's
no longer suffers from "high blood pressure, a heart murmur,
migraine headaches, high cholesterol, and pretty severe acid reflux.
Chuck sez:

"In the book version of The Wizard Of Oz, the Cowardly
Lion mentions how odd it is that humans cook their food first.
And he's right, if you compare us to the rest of the animal
kingdom. Sure, cooking is an ancient tradition that's probably
been around as long as fire, but that doesn't mean it's the
most ideal way to eat. Take a seed and plant it in the ground;
it'll grow. Take that same seed and roast it first, then plant
it. Nothing will happen. That seed is dead. When you eat raw,
not only are you eating food in its freshest state without any
vitamin or mineral loss, but there's a vitality in it that fire
destroys."

6 Reasons to Experiment With a Raw Food Diet

1. Raw Food is Green
By eating whole raw foods, you will drastically reduce your waste
output and end up composting what's leftover.

3. Raw Food is Good For Any Meal
Whether it's a Superfood Shake for breakfast, a Broccoli-Waldorf
Salad for lunch, or a Raw Creamed Spinach Soup dinner, raw food
is tasty and fortifying all day long.
4. Raw Food is Delicious and Full of Variety
Too often, new eating habits are portrayed as being about sacrifice
but going raw includes a broad
range of new meal options, including Raw Tagliatelle Pasta
of Zucchini and Carrots with Thai Coconut Peanut Sauce.

5. Raw Food Includes Juicing
Besides the fun of concocting new blends, juicing delivers enzymes.
Living-Foods.com
sez: "Enzymes are your body's work force. Acting as catalysts
in hundreds of thousands of chemical reactions that take place
throughout the body, enzymes are essential for digestion and absorption
of food, for conversion of food stuffs into body tissue, and for
the production of energy at the cellular level. In fact, enzymes
are critical for most of the metabolic activities taking place
in your body every second of every day."
6. Raw Food Can Be a Lifestyle or Just Part of a Lifestyle
Without even trying, most of us "eat raw" all the time:
fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. Many salads are raw
as are some juices. So don't get caught in the all-or-nothing
trap. Try it out, experiment, and don't make it pressure. The
odds are you'll find yourself movingat your own ratetowards
a diet that includes more and more uncooked meals.